Geoffrey Kendrick, head of digital asset research at Standard Chartered, has been one of the most bullish voices on Wall Street where cryptocurrency is concerned. Some of his forecasts have been overly optimistic, but he was correct in predicting Bitcoin (BTC 0.71%) would break $100,000 in 2024.
Kendrick now believes Bitcoin will hit $500,000 by 2028, which implies 355% upside from its current price of $110,000. He also estimates XRP (XRP 0.48%) will hit $12.50 over the same period, which implies 345% upside from its current price of $2.80. In both cases, Kendrick sees an increasingly favorable regulatory backdrop as an important catalyst.
President Trump after returning to office promptly signed an executive order that formed a working group charged with strengthening American leadership in digital assets. He signed another executive order that created a digital asset stockpile and strategic Bitcoin reserve, and selected crypto advocate Paul Atkins as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Additionally, the SEC earlier this year rescinded Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) 121, which required financial institutions to count digital assets stored for customers as a liability on their balance sheets, which dissuaded many from providing custody services. The removal of SAB 121 undoes that obstacle and should promote institutional adoption. Read on to learn more about the investment thesis for Bitcoin and XRP.
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1. Bitcoin
Bitcoin -- the largest cryptocurrency, with a market value of $2.1 trillion -- has become increasingly popular since the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024, an event that not only legitimized the cryptocurrency by creating a regulated investment vehicle, but also unlocked pent up demand among institutional and retail investors by eliminating the hassle and high fees associated with cryptocurrency exchanges.
Importantly, the iShares Bitcoin Trust from BlackRock achieved $37 billion in net inflows last year, which made it the most successful ETF launch in history, according to The Wall Street Journal. And that popularity has only intensified. The iShares Bitcoin Trust currently ranks among the 25 largest ETFs by assets under management (AUM). More broadly, AUM across all spot Bitcoin ETFs nearly tripled in the past year.
Particularly import is the rising interest among institutional investors, a group that controls about $128 trillion in assets. Recently filed Forms 13F indicate twice as many institutional investors had positions in the iShares Bitcoin Trust in Q2 2025 versus to the previous year, and the value of those positions was more than five times larger. In short, more institutional investors are taking increasingly large stakes in Bitcoin.
Looking ahead, I think more companies and institutional investors will add digital assets to their portfolios, and Bitcoin is likely to be the first choice for many. Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan earlier this year wrote, "Bitcoin is the king of crypto assets -- the largest, most liquid, and most established. In my opinion, it's akin to digital gold and is the only crypto asset with a shot at being a globally important currency."
CRYPTO: BTC
Key Data Points
2. XRP
XRP is the native digital asset of the XRP Ledger, a blockchain platform designed to support fast and cheap cross-border payments. The most important catalyst for XRP is Ripple, a technology company that provides payments solutions to financial institutions and enterprise, some of which use the XRP Ledger.
Importantly, Ripple offers different services and one of them (called on-demand liquidity) uses XRP as a bridge currency: Payments are converted to XRP, sent across the XRP Ledger, and then converted back to the original currency. However, Ripple also offers payment services that do not require XRP, and they are much more popular with financial institutions.
The industry standard in cross-border wire transfers is the SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications) messaging system. It handles about 53 million payments daily. But those transactions are often expensive because they involve several intermediaries, and can take days to settle.
Consequently, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse recently predicted XRP would capture 14% of SWIFT volume within five years. Its price would likely skyrocket in that scenario, but I doubt XRP will come anywhere close to that figure. While it does support faster and cheaper payments, moving money with a volatile cryptocurrency is still a risk that most financial institutions would likely find unacceptable.
Ripple recently addressed that problem by adding a stablecoin called Ripple USD (RLUSD) to its ecosystem. RLUSD is a better bridge currency because its value is tied to that of the U.S. dollar, and transactions involving the stablecoin would still require fees paid in XRP. That means adoption of RLUSD could drive XRP prices higher, but other stablecoins (like USDC) are much more popular.
Finally, Geoffrey Kendrick sees an important catalyst in the pending approval of spot XRP ETFs. Bitcoin has advanced 135% since spot Bitcoin ETFs were approved in January 2024, so it stands to reason XRP would also benefit, though probably not to the same degree. The SEC is expected to make a decision on at least six spot XRP ETFs by October 23.
